Another superspeedway, another pole for McDowell at Talladega
10/05/2024 04:22 PM
Michael McDowell claimed yet another NASCAR Cup Series superspeedway pole Saturday at Talladega.
The Front Row Motorsports driver ran a 183.063mph (52.310s) lap in the final round of qualifying. It is his series-leading sixth pole of the season (and of his career) and fifth consecutive at a superspeedway. The only superspeedway McDowell did not win the pole at was the season-opening Daytona 500, where he started second.
Austin Cindric (P) qualified second at 182.424mph; Todd Gilliland, third at 182.258mph; Kyle Busch, fourth at 181.863mph and Ryan Blaney (P), fifth at 181.784mph.
Blaney is the defending race winner.
Joey Logano (P) ran sixth at 181.687mph; Austin Dillon, seventh at 181.567mph; and Denny Hamlin (P), eighth at 181.453mph; Harrison Burton, ninth at 181.038mph and Daniel Hemric, 10th at 180.980 mph.
Chase Elliot (P) and Kyle Larson (P) will start 11th and 12th (181.007mph and 181.292mph respectively). Tyler Reddick (P) only mustered 14th (181.223mph). Behind him, fellow playoff contenders William Byron and Christopher Bell qualified 16th and 21st (181.007mph and 180.655mph respectively). Alex Bowman qualified just 23rd at 180.638mph, and Daniel Suarez was mired in 31st at 179.787mph. The lowest qualifying playoff driver was Chase Briscoe in 36th with a lap of 178.997mph.
There are 40 drivers entered in the event. Sunday is the second race in the Round of 12 for the Cup Series playoffs.
Saturday's qualifying session was the only on-track time for Cup Series teams.
NEXT: YellaWood 500 at 2 p.m. ET Sunday (NBC).
P denotes Cup Series playoff driver.
